Crowds gather at Brussels' Place de la Bourse to hold a minute's silence in
memory of the 34 people killed in Tuesday's terror attacks

By Charlotte Krol, video source AP, words by Camilla Turner

11:48AM GMT 23 Mar 2016

Silence fell on Place de la Bourse where hundreds gathered to remember the city’s dead, as the Brussels entered its second day of mourning.

Belgian flags which hung out from surrounding buildings billowed in the wind while the ground was covered with colourful chalk tributes and messages of solidarity with the victims of the attacks.

The steps of Belgium’s neo-Renaissance stock exchange building filled with people who gathered in defiance of official advice to stay at home and “avoid all unnecessary movements”.

By midday on Wednesday when the silent vigil was held, the terrorist attacks at the airport and metro station had claimed 31 lives and injured 270.

As soon as the minute's silence was up, the crowd broke out into applause and shouts of "Vive la Belgique" rang through the air.

One woman, who wore a hijab, knelt down and banged her fists on the ground wailing "Ce n'est pas islam", as a crowd gathered around her.

People observe a minute of silence at the Place de la Bourse in the center of Brussels (AP/Martin Meissner)

Guillaume Gerard, a 20 year old History student at the University of Brussels, said: "I came here to understand, to feel something, to be with others.

"I am more afraid of politicians than I am of the attacks because our society could really change after this."

Aurelie Torrekens, 26, who works at a recruitment company in central Brussels,came to the square with her colleagues.

"We have to show that we are strong together and that we can go on," she said.

Emily Rosoux, a 28 year old student, said "It scares me of course. I feel sad. But we go on. We have to live as we used to before the attacks."

Asad Majeeb, the Imam for the Muslim Association of Belgium, attended the minute's silence.

Speaking to The Telegraph afterwards, he said that radical Islamism is a problem that his own community must address, adding that he is "disappointed" that Salah Abdeslam had been hiding among the Muslims in Molenbeek for months.

"First of all I want to condemn the attack of yesterday," he said. "They were brutal. These people may call themselves Muslim but they are not. They have killed the whole of humanity.

"We should be together as a community and as a whole society and counter these terrorist attacks and the masterminds behind them."